The Benefits of Coloring

Coloring is not just for kids anymore, it is being used for adults to help with anxiety, and maintain mindfulness.

Coloring is not just for kids anymore, it is being used for adults to help with anxiety, and maintain mindfulness. We can recall when coloring brought relaxations, focus, and calmed us down as a child.

Using bright colors, paints, and pencils seemed to allow us to escape between the contours of a drawing. Those days we thought were well gone, but not so. Researchers are finding many benefits for adults who paint, color, or just create art.

You don’t need to be an artist, or a kid to enjoy the many benefits like being mindful, or be less angry. Adults are stressed, overworked, and need time to take a deep breath, adult coloring books can help this.

Don't take our word for it.

The American Art Therapy Association supports this tool. “The adult coloring phenomenon is reintroducing art as an important component of health and wellness,” says Dr. Donna Betts, ATR-BC, AATA President in a press release. "Obviously, anyone who requires professional art therapy services should visit the AATA website for more information.”

Here are four reasons to get your colored pencils together, your imagination and a coloring book.

Helps focus: In a hectic world creating art allows us to slow the mind down. Slowing down the mind will slow the body down. Coloring will help you focus on the lines, contours and shapes—taking you into a calmer mindset. You can move without judgment as you color and create. It opens up the frontal lobe of the brain that helps us organize, so a win-win!

Alleviates stress: Dr. Nikki Martinez wrote in the Huff Post that coloring may help people with anger, eating disorders, and other stresses that trigger bad habits or behavior. “Coloring and focusing on this harmless and calming activity can actually turn that response down, and let your brain have some much needed rest and relaxation. This can be an exceptionally productive and welcome outlet for these individuals.”

Live in the moment: We are always looking ahead or worried about the past. A simple coloring break will force you to live in the moment. This will help you learn to take a step back and not become so stressed.

Explore: Coloring is a great way to vent when you’re having a bad day! Be free to create what you want without limitations. If it’s scribbling outside the lines go for it. No perfection is needed. Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung even prescribed coloring to his clients in the 1900s. He suggested that introverts preferred different colors like blue compared to extraverts, who picked red. “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being.”